NCJ Number
224641
Date Published
September 2008
Length
42 pages
Annotation
This “Companion Paper” is designed as a guide to the Discussion Paper entitled, "Shaping Queensland’s Guardianship Legislation: Principles and Capacity," which is the Queensland Law Reform Commission’s examination of some of the key provisions of Queensland’s (Australia) guardianship legislation.
Abstract
This Companion Paper provides a short description of Queensland’s guardianship law and issues and then asks the reader to offer opinions about the law and possible reforms. The Discussion Paper is a much longer document, since it presents the current law and issues in more detail. In Queensland, the guardianship legislation consists of the Guardianship and Administration Act 2000 and the Powers of Attorney Act 1998. This legislation applies when an adult has impaired capacity for certain matters. It allows for substitute decisionmakers to make decisions on the impaired adult’s behalf. The guardianship legislation applies to certain types of decisions, which may relate to personal affairs, health, or financial matters. It contains a set of 11 General Principles. Those who make decisions for or about an adult with impaired capacity are required to apply these principles when making decisions. These 11 principles are presented in this Companion Paper. In addition to the General Principles, the guardianship legislation includes a Health Care Principle, which specifies the procedures by which health decisions for an impaired adult are to be made. Other issues addressed in the legislation are criteria for determining a person’s decisionmaking capacity and the capacity to make “enduring documents,” which are documents authorized by the impaired person prior to his/her decisionmaking becoming impaired, such as assignment of power of attorney and a health directive. For each of the aforementioned areas of Queensland’s guardianship legislation, the Reform Commission poses questions pertinent to their reform deliberations, soliciting readers’ comments.